Recovery
by Anyuna
Summary: The sequel to Once Human is here!  Will Donnie be able to make good on his vow?  Read the first one here - /s/2399217/1/Once Human
1. PrologueTeaser

The night-time city. On its surface, a sea of lights sparkling in the darkness. But underneath... Underneath is a cesspool of corruption, greed and crime. Home to all the darkest elements of human nature that normal people try to hide and that the extraordinary few relish in. It was a cesspool he should have conquered by now. If not for those disgusting freaks of nature, he would have. He could be in his rightful position. Feared and powerful. As it was, he was only just about to embark on a shameful exile. No matter how long it took or how galling the wait was, he would gain the resources and manpower necessary to return and take back his honour. Very soon he and his army would return to New York, and then those turtles would be made to pay dearly for their insolence.

"I thought I ordered no interruptions. Perhaps I was mistaken?" Shredder turned to see the robotic Stockman pause in the act of knocking, then lower the appendage that served as his hand, a frown gracing the screen that passed for his face.

"My apologies. But this is important. I have gone over and over the records of the ... incident that led to our... problems..."

The Shredder ground his teeth at being reminded of his failure, "Just get to the point Stockman, before I loose my patience."

Stockman gave a nervous bow before continuing. "I have been able to find no possible way that the power could have gone out on its own."

"What are you saying?"

"What I am saying is that I believe that the girl Amy did sabotage us, no matter what she may say. I hypothesise that her memories may have started to return, and recommend immediate re-education. I also think that we should erase any and all ties to the turtles to prevent future memory recovery."

The Shredder sighed deeply, this girl was starting to be far more trouble than she was worth. "Do whatever you think is necessary with her. Now leave me."

He bowed again. "As you command."

* * *

A/N: Hidey Ho! Amy is back once again (at last) Here's a wee teaser of what's to come.

Love, peace and chicken grease

Anyuna


	2. Chapter One:  Anniversary

*Donatello*

I always used to love the junkyard so much. I used to feel like a kid on Christmas. Not so much now, I just find it harder to get excited these days. Maybe it's just cause of what day it is.

But still, we need that part. I'd say I didn't know what possessed us to let Michelangelo go joyriding on the shellcycle if I didn't already know exactly why. The sheer amount and duration of noise our boisterous brother can churn out when he wants something is simply frightening.

So now, thanks to him, here we are looking for a muffler to replace the one Mike broke when he dropped the bike. He never should have tried to do that wheelie.

"Don't see why Mike ain't here. He's the one who broke the damn thing," Raph grumbles next to me as we sort through the piles of trash. I only sigh, but Raph goes on. "S'pose if Mikey was here, he'd probably be pickin up every piece of scrap he could get his damn hands on and askin if that's what we were lookin for just to annoy us."

He's most likely right about that, but I'm really not in the mood for chit-chat right now, so I just say, "Mm."

Still, it doesn't deter Raph from continuing. "And I bet if he did manage to find it, he'd play catch with it or somethin and bust it."

"Probably."

That seems to discourage him at last and we just spend the next few minutes sorting through the junk. Until...

"Got it!" Raph exclaims, holding a muffler aloft and the other arm up in triumph. "This looks like it'll fit the bike just perfect!"

I just nod.

Raph slowly drops his arms to rest back by his sides. Then he just stands there and looks at me. "What?" I ask a little defensively. Now it's his turn to sigh. He raises the hand not currently full of metal and begins rubbing the back of his head. He's not going to bring it up is he?

"I get why ya so tense bro. I mean, three years is a long time."

Damn. He _is_ going to bring it up. Maybe I can head this off. "I really don't want to talk about this right now," I tell him, turning to walk away. But apparently that's not going to work. I don't get given the option to leave.

Raph steps in from of me, arms folded saying, "You might not want to, but you probl'ly should. She's been gone for a long time. Maybe you should let it go."

_What?_

What_?_!" I stand there, totally incredulous, waiting for him to explain himself, but he just stands there, saying nothing and looking uncomfortable. I can hardly believe he just said that. "So what are you saying? That I should just forget all about it? Forget all about what happened, about her? There's no way I'm doing that."

I look back at Raph. His eyes are wide. I don't think he was actually expecting me to respond. "I'm not sayin ta forget all about her. Listen, I miss Amy too..."

I can feel my muscles tense at hearing her name. I can't help but think of how badly I failed her. Either Raph doesn't notice the effect of his words, or he doesn't care because he goes on.

...And I know what happened is crappy, but ya can't keep on beatin yourself up over it."

I wonder if he even heard me before. I can't. I swore I would get her back. I'm not going to give up until I do. About to respond to that effect, I'm interrupted by a homeless woman of indeterminate age shuffling slowly around one of the piles of trash. I'm surprised, but Raph is calm. He must have spotted her. I was so agitated that I even stopped paying attention to my surroundings. Maybe he's right, I know that I will get her back, but there really just isn't any sense in self-flagellation.

The old woman slowly makes her way towards us. There is no point in trying to hide now as she's looking right at us. Strange, I don't recognise her at all, and I'm pretty sure we've never met, but she doesn't appear to be afraid of us. A little wary perhaps, but that's hardly surprising. She is even smiling ever so slightly. To say that this is unusual would be the definition of understatement. She comes to a stop only a few feet from us. Just what is going on here?

She opens her mouth and after a short pause, merely closes it again. She tries again and this time manages to speak. "Good afternoon gentlemen."

I look at Raph. He seems just as confused as me. "Gentlemen?" I mouth silently. His only response is a shrug.

If the strange woman notices our surprise, she doesn't show it and continues. "My name is Gwendolyn Padrick, Gwen for short if you would prefer. I am in need of some assistance and if you would be amenable to interceding here, that would be simply marvellous."

Huh?"

Raph seems pretty baffled. It was probably her choice of language. "She wants our help," I tell him.

Ah," he responds, clearly relieved to know what's going on. Or at least as much as possible here. I've gotta say, as a distraction, this is proving useful. However; that doesn't mean it's not freaking me out.

It is most fortuitous that our paths have crossed" Gwen – if that's really her name – starts wringing her hands, one squeezing the fingers of the other, then swapping and starting over. I'm not even sure she realises that she's doing it. She starts speaking again after a pause, "I have been deeply troubled of late that it will soon become utterly impossible for me to adequately care for the little one. If you would kindly follow me?"

I'm definitely intrigued here. I have no idea what's going on, or what she's talking about, but I intend to find out. "Sure. We'll go with you," I tell her.

She drops her hands, then smiles and nods, moving off back the way she came.

As I move to follow, Raph steps in front of me, saying, "Whoa! What are you doin? She could be totally crazy, or leadin us into some kinda trap, or… or somethin else real bad. We don't even know her."

Precisely," I retort. "We don't know her, but she shows no fear of us. I don't think she's a threat, and besides; I'm curious."

Okay Donnie, but if this all goes wrong I'm blamin you." He grins.

Thanks," I say, rolling my eyes, but feeling my bad mood lift a little. Nothing like a puzzle to raise spirits, I suppose.

I start off after our mystery woman, I begin to wonder about her. Raph was right about not knowing her. We do know a few of the homeless people, but not all – not by a long shot. So it wouldn't be strange for her to be completely unknown to us. But still, it just doesn't make any sense to me that she seems so at ease around us.

Just who is she? She certainly doesn't look like an assassin, but then again if she was wearing a big sandwich board with, 'I am an assassin' on it, she wouldn't be a very good one. She looks like any of the other homeless people I've ever met. Shabbily clothed, but probably wrapped up in enough layers to be warm enough to at the very least stave off frostbite. Probably younger than she looks; but you would only find out for sure after a couple of weeks of regular square meals, proper rest and a little pampering. I suppose that if this is a disguise, then it must be a very skilfully crafted one. That's not really helpful though. All it really means is that if it turns out she is actually a threat, she's probably extremely dangerous. I'm pretty sure I'm just being paranoid, and a quick glance at Raph tells me he's not seriously worried about it. But then again, he rarely is.

When I resume my study of our guide, I notice that she is muttering to herself. While we were taught as children that eavesdropping the height of bad manners, I'm not sure if that really applies here, so I try to listen in. Unfortunately, she's speaking so quietly that I can only catch small snippets of what she's saying.

...only chance... ...take care of... ...find... ...suffer... ...too cruel... ...I have to..."

I don't like the sound of that. I really, really don't.

* * *

A/N: Greetings and salutations once again! May I be the first to say, "Dun dun duuuuunnnnn!"

...Sorry, couldn't help myself there.

Hope you all enjoyed the mini-mystery in here, make sure to R & R even if you don't though. I love to get constructive criticism - keep in mind the constructive part though, eh?

Love, peace and chicken grease  
Anyuna


	3. Chapter Two: Eve

*Donatello*

We come round the corner of pile of trash into a small alcove, in the centre of which is an old delivery van. It's little more than just the chassis really, I can tell just from a glance that all the usable parts were stripped from it a long time ago. All the doors are gone with threadbare blankets over the holes. The bonnet's missing too. There's even plants of some kind growing where the engine should be. Gwen comes to a stop, just inside the alcove and calls, "You can come out now!"

I tense, not sure whether or not this is an ambush, seeing Raph do the same out of the corner of my eye. The blanket moves.

But all that comes out is what must be a child, judging by the height and stature. I feel rather silly for worrying so much now, but then again, I suppose you don't live the kind of life that we do without being at least a little paranoid; not for long anyway. This situation is still extremely puzzling; I have no idea what kind of help we could be here. I can't even tell much about the child, they're wearing a sweatshirt that is much too big for them, the sleeves hang well over the hands. Plus they've got their hood up as well.

Gwen goes down on one knee, arms out, and the child goes to her. She takes a deep breath before saying, "This is... well to tell the truth, I don't know what her real name is – or if she even has one, but I've been calling her Eve. If you're wondering why she wasn't with me, it's because I've taught her to hide whenever I'm not around; and I don't like to take her out and about much."

I'm about to ask what would make it necessary to keep a little girl in seclusion, but Raph beats me to it, asking, "Why the hiding?" Right to the point, but I probably would have used a little more diplomacy or at the very least, better sentence structure than that.

"Well..." she begins, hesitantly. She thinks for a moment, then stands and continues, "Perhaps it would be easier to simply show you." She pulls the hood back to reveal the shyly smiling, green face under it...

Wait... Green?

She's?..

"What the hell? Another mutant?" Raph exclaims, expressing the shock both of us are feeling here. This is just mind-blowing.

Gwen frowns. "Mind your language around the little one young man!" she scolds. "I don't want her picking up on that sort of thing..." She thinks again. "Not that I can see that being an issue – she's not spoken a word in all the time we've been together."

Raph's busy looking both annoyed and confused at the same time about being called a, 'young man', but I'm more interested in something else. "Do you have any idea why she doesn't speak?" I ask her.

She shrugs. "Not a single one. Perhaps she isn't able to. She's certainly not dim; she understands whatever is said to her just fine." She turns and smiles at the little girl still in her arms. "Isn't that right, dear heart?" she asks her, getting a nod in reply.

"Look," Raph begins testily, " I still don't get what this' got ta do with us."

Gwen sighs, her lips contorting in an expression of thought, "I heard some acquaintances of mine discussing a group of strange, but philanthropic youths who all wore turtle costumes. That got me to thinking that just maybe you might be like my Eve here. Which fortunately, happens to be the case."

"Aaaaaaand?" Raph interrupts, making a circular, 'hurry up' gesture.

She frowns. "I'm getting to it. Where was I?"

I see him roll his eyes out of the corner of mine. I get his point, I want her to hurry up too, but that probably wasn't the way to go.

Thoughts re-collected, she goes on, "Ah, yes. As I was saying, as my compatriots told me that you occasionally frequented this particular place, I simply set up shop here and waited. Knowing that there might be others like her that could most likely provide far better living conditions than myself, I was resolved to, should the opportunity arise, ask if you could take her."

"Why?" Raph asks, straight to the point yet again.

Gwen sighs yet again. "Despite all my efforts, I simply cannot forage enough for two anymore. That, combined with our rather sub-par housing... It would not be fair to confine her to this way of life when there is a potential better alternative available."

That doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I mean, yes, our housing and food supply is probably better, but what about all the danger in our lives? About to protest to that effect, I'm distracted by a tug on my coat. I look down and realise I'm being stared at by wide brown eyes in a little green face. She's just standing there, looking at me so solemnly. It's unsettling.

Raph snaps me out of my uneasy reverie, saying, "Maybe we should."

I turn to him, dumbstruck once again – it must be my day for that or something. The best rebuttal I can come with is only, "I don't know, Raph." I just don't think it would be a good idea for her to be with us. What if she gets hurt?

He shakes his head, a big smirk on his face and chuckling. Like part any of this is funny. "S'not like it'd be the first time we'd taken in a stray."

Oh yeah, because that went just brilliantly.

"Hmmmm, I don't think this' something we should be decidin' though."

Finally, he's making some sense!

"I'll call Splinter and see what he says," he adds.

Damn. He would go and spoil it, wouldn't he? To top it all off, he starts walking off. "Where are you going?" I ask.

Raph grins again, "I'm gonna go call Splinter. You can stay here an entertain the ladies."

Sometimes my brother is a giant jerk. True to his word, he walks off around one of the piles of trash, waving cheerily with the bike part that I wish was still my only real worry for the day, leaving me with our strange new 'friends'. Speaking of whom, I look back down and realise that the shorter of the two is still staring at me quizzically, head slightly tilted to the side. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was the same expression that people get when they see someone they've seen before, but can't remember from where or when. She's probably just curious at seeing someone who looks like her for the first time... There's a point. Would it be the first time? Where did she come from? Was she human once, like Amy, or was she born that like this? Either way, this raises a lot of questions. Luckily, it's possible that I might be able to get some answers.

I pull my eyes away from Eve and look over at today's other new face. As I do, I wonder briefly who she is and why she's living the life she does. But there are more pressing things to be learned. To get her attention, I ask, "Hey, uh, it's Gwen, isn't it?"

She jolts at the sound of my voice. Clearly it's not only my day for introspection. "Yes, that's right." she replies, sounding terser than before. Her body language seems to be slowly changing, all the resolve that was there earlier is draining out of her moment by moment, leaving her looking very dispirited.

"I was just wondering how and when you found Eve here," I say, gesturing at the small form next to me who, as I can see out of the corner of my eye, is still staring at me.

"It isn't a particularly long story," she begins slowly, "To tell the truth, I'm just as curious as to where she came from as you probably are."

Well that doesn't sound promising. But should hear her out. Some information is better than none.

She continues, "I simply found her wandering around down by the storm-water outflow a little over five years ago. She was completely terrified, but there was no one around to be seen. It took quite a while to get her to let me close to her. When I did, I noticed that she didn't look normal, but at first I thought that she had some kind of paint or algy on her, and intended to clean her up as best I could, then deliver her to social services. You can imagine my surprise when I realised that her skin wasn't stained but naturally green. Any idea of giving her over to the authorities evaporated at that point. Who knows what kind of dreadful experiments they would have done to her. So I simply took up the mantle of looking after the little dear myself." She sighs, "So to sum up, I have no more of an idea of where she came from than you do. Unless that is, you have some information that you're keeping close to your chest."

I shake my head. "Sorry. We know how we ended up the way we are, but..." I trail off. There are a lot of mutants popping up lately. Where are they all coming from? Those Mutant Alliance crazies still won't tell us where they came from and now that they've we live in a different part of the sewers, we almost never see them anyway. Then there was Amy, we never did figure out where that mutagen she fell onto came from. Now this...

"But?" Gwen queries, interrupting my train of thought.

"Oh, just that there are some mysteries around at the moment," I explain.

"Ah," she says with a nod. She looks pretty subdued now. That, combined with the fact that she's gazing as intently at Eve as she is at me (still), I'd guess that she's really not looking forward to saying goodbye. Can't say I blame her. They've been together quite a while and she is essentially giving up her child here.

I should say something to make her feel better, but I can't think of anything.

So instead, we continue standing around in silence.

* * *

Author's Note: Hey guys! Here's chapter two (obviously). I hope it lives up to your expectations. Feel free to tell me if if doesn't. I love reviews and respond personally to each one. Hint hint.

Love, peace and chicken grease  
Anyuna


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